TOEIC '10 Summer

Again, I had a TOEIC test on August 1, and today I found the score report in my mail box after summer vacation in my home town.

At first, I thought that the score was better than the last time slightly, but it turned out I got 10 points down. :(
Actually, from this year, I decided to have TOEIC exam once a year, not biannually, and this time I could make no spare when I took the exam. In short, it's important how one is used to answering the questions. So, it's better taking it as a reasonable result anyway.

Day 1007 : No Thank You!?

Now, my daughter is staying at her grandma's house with my wife.

Today, I asked my wife sending some pictures of my daughter, and I got the following:



Well, my wife said, "Let's take a picture for papa!", and my daughter looked like that she didn't like it...orz :ob

Day 972 : Rock'n Roll !

This evening, we went to Ito Yokado @ Musashi Koganei, and the above is a snapshot there.
I think there is no need to explain. :)

De'Longhi

Recently, my wife bought a dehumidifier.
I didn't know which manufacturer she chose, but today I recognized she loves brand things.
It's a De'Longhi, DC125ECO, and here my point is that it's huge and noisy. :(

日本人の英語

日本人の英語 (English of Japanese People)
マーク・ピーターセン(Mark Petersen)
ISBN 4-00-430018-5

Well, I thought I should write about this book in Japanese, my mother tongue.

この本は初版が1988年、まだ僕が大学生の頃に出版されている。
なんで出た当時に、せめて大学院の頃に気づいて読まなかったのだろう。
このblogも、思うところあって英語で書いているわけだけれど、この本を読んでいて、正直、冷や汗が出たというのが正直なところだ。
マーク・ピーターセンの本は、他にも「続日本人の英語」「心にとどく英語」とあるのでどちらも順次読んでみよう。

しかし、それにしても、見事な「日本語」だとしかいいようがない。
最近は日本語の通じない／書けない日本人も多いことだし…

Day 958 : Pretending to be asleep

Recently our daughter pretends to be asleep when we say something she does not like.
I'm not sure whom she learned it from, but anyway the above picture is an example. :o

Twitter 503

Ha ha, I see this screen for the first time.
There must be a storm of tweets in the world. :)

Cloud Computing Expo #1

Today, I went to the 1st Cloud Computing Expo (Cloud Japan) to listen to a talk given by Yuji Chino of NicoNico Video(ニコニコ動画).
Actually, it was the keynote speech of the Data Storage Expo which was joint hosted with that.
That's why, his talk was mainly focusing on storage subsystem perspective of their system.

Here are my notes:
- Nico Video has about 140TB of data in total. Individual video file has 2 or 3 copies including the original.
- At this moment, Nico Video supports only 2 levels of resolution. This is one trade off decision.
- At this moment, Nico Video does not preserve the original uploaded data. This is another trade off decision.
- Nico Video's system uses 3-tier model, edge servers(400), origin servers(100) and storage subsystem(3).
- I'm not sure what is the origin server, but it looks like a kind of cache server.
- Because of their load balancing and multi-tier cache architecture, there is no significant I/O traffic for the storage subsystem even they are using NFS, not FC fabric.
- The edge servers utilizes fast I/O throughput of SSD, for other servers capacity is primarily important.

Sun Intel Net !?

I've been interested in a company named "SUN INTELNET" Corporation which has a big building by the wayside of Tomei Express Way close to Atsugi Interchange.
Today, I succeeded to take a photo of their building finally. :)

Of course, it's because I felt funny the combination of words Sun and Intel, but anyway they look like a logistic related company...

Day 938 : Funny Face?

Haha, recently my daughter wears a funny face when we say something she doesn't like.
The above is a snapshot which my little brother took today. :)

A Business Meeting

Today, I had a meeting with a former colleague of mine.

Actually, he was my boss about 3 years ago, and both of us are now working for different companies from the one which we both worked for together.
Actually, it's often said that my employer and his employer are competing each other, but I think today we had very much constructive discussion. Granted that it's not clear the business could be put into practice at this moment, but I'm looking forward to working together with him. :)

Anyway, I have to hurry up my current work improving quality of a software related to cloud computing. That's the key factor, actually. :o

RFC 5841

http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc5841.txt

This RFC proposes a new TCP option to denote packet mood. :o

I like it. :)

Cherry blossoms and a farewell

My wife's grand father past away in Izumo today, and I'll be there tomorrow to attend at the funeral ceremony. If I remember correctly, he was 95 years old.

Spring is the season of cherry blossoms as well as the farewell season.
The cousin of mine whose one year anniversary ceremony I attended at last week also left this life in this season of cherry blossoms. As a typical Japanese, I'm feeling something from the fact they departed in the season...

Anyway, I wanted to take my daughter to Izumo to see him before hearing the news...

Day 905 : Grandpa

Ha ha, my daughter enjoyed 2 days with her grandpa about 8 months interval!
Unfortunately, we have very cold days in Japan, but it looks like they had happy time anyway. :)

Day 902 : Departure

We stayed at Shizuoka two days because of the anniversary of my cousin's death.
This time, we moved to my wife's home town to see her parents after the ceremony in my home town.
Actually, my father in law met my daughter about 8 months interval because he spends alomost all of his time in Izumo with his parents. I can understand how great he was looking forward to this day for months. :)

An Wedding Ceremony

Today, I attended at an wedding ceremony of a colleague of mine.
I worked together with him for five years since he joined to our company, and so I felt quite profound during the ceremony being as a witnesses of their marriage. :)

Actually, it's was the first time for me attending at Christian style wedding ceremony, and the sermons of the rector (father?) was very much impressive.

BTW, the ceremony was held at a very good restaurant, Ristorante ASO in Daikanyama, and the dishes were extremely good. IMHO, better than Enoteca Pinciori in Ginza.

P.S.
Hi, Uchikawa-san, are you reading?
You know the above guy and his father very much. I had a really happy time today. :)

Kiel's in Tokyo

I didn't know that Kiel's opened their satellite shop in Shibuya, Tokyo.
The location is near the Shibuya station of Keio Inogashira line (京王井の頭線).

I went to their main shop about 1.5 years ago in New York. At that time, I walked more than 1 hour looking for the shop just after arriving in New York, and so I was exhausted. :(

But, now my wife can visit there by herself. :)

Day 894 : Exhausted

Today was a busy day for my daughter.
In the morning, she went to a hospital with her mother.
There, she looked like got nervous.
After getting back home, she had a lunch in a hurry and went to a park with her father.
There, she enjoyed a swing and a slide very much about 1.5 hours.
Finally, she went to a big electronics center with her parents to buy a new laundry machine.
I took the above picture when we had a dinner at an Italian restaurant after the shopping.
Usually, she takes a nap afternoon about 2 hours, but today she didn't sleep at all.
Thus, she fell asleep at the restaurant. :o

Thus, she must have been exhausted.
Have a good dream. :)

A LISP Textbook

LISP For Beginners Revised Edition (初めての人のためのLISP 増補改訂版)
Ikuo Takeuchi
ISBN 978-4-7981-1941-0

I bought this book today.
The author is Professor Takeuchi whom I mentioned in the beginning of this month.

Actually, I studied LISP about 15 years ago using Winston and Horn, but it's a quite standard textbook and in other word boring for me.

You can understand that the textbook is abnormal by skimming it within a minute. :o
It consists of mainly dialogs of Professor K and students, and what the most important thing is that it tells us philosophy of LISP and computer science throughout the book.

Actually, the book has been out of prints for years. But, Professor Takeuchi revised it greatly and published again yesterday. :)

It's worth reading if you are working on computer science. :)

Bluetooth USB Adapter

Today, I went to Yurakucho BicCamera and bought the below. :)



Corega CG-BT2USB02CB
It's a Class2 Bluetooth USB adapter, and it costed me 1280 yen (roughly 14USD).

For me, the cost was the first priority this time, and the second was size.
Class 1 or 2 (maximum communication radius) was not important at all.
Look at the picture, and compare the size with a cigarette. It's so small and perfect. :)

BTW, why I bought it?
TOP SECRET. :o

Anyway, I'm going to use it at office, not at home. :)